Can anyone give advice about interview presentation please?

[notacooldad]

I have also posted this in employment

My 20 year old son has an interview with the MOD.
Part of the process is that he has to do a 10 minute presentation about the service. He can present it in anyway he likes, use material from their website and pretty much has a free reign.
He has asked me and his dad for some help as he has never done anything like this before. However neither have we!!
Obviously he is nervous and wants to give it his best shot.

Can anyone give us any tips on what he should be doing.
I've have covered as much as I can about personal presentation such as appear confident, make your presence be known and talk clearly and project your voice so that every one can hear and include everyone by eye contact.

I'm not sure what else to suggest.

Thank you in advance to anyone that can help
( it feels like last minute homework, I thought those days were behind me!!)

He should cover their history, their purpose and some memorable events or disasters they’ve averted, the way they interlock with government departments and the armed forces. Make the slides really crisp and not overly busy and for 10 minutes he should keep it to about 7 slides on power point

Well done to him on getting an interview! The MOD has a huge remit so I would suggest he finds something that they do that really interests him or that he is passionate about. It's impossible to do a presentation as to the entire role of one department in an interview. One of the brilliant things they do is to undertake a huge amount of work to identify soldiers lost in WW1 & WW2, when their remains are found and to give them a full military burial. That could be something he could use.

If he's preparing slides then he needs to have them printed out, in colour, to give to every member of the interview panel. The panel is usually 3 people so print out 5 just in case, including his copy. Don't rely on being able to connect a laptop to a screen, it likely won't work. Although I'm a CS and we have this facility it is somewhat hit and miss. Hard copy all the way.

Once he has decided on his presentation he needs to practice it again and again and time it. Not necessarily in front of anyone, although that does help, but he needs to get used to speaking out loud and get used to the sound of his own voice. It's only when you start speaking out loud that you realise how often you say Umm and Err and waffle. That was the best advice I was ever given ahead of an interview. And yes, you feel like a total dick but best to overcome the feeling like a dick before you get to the interview.

And as a CS who regularly interviews, he can take notes in. I'm a G7 so interview for SEO the grades below. We view that as someone who has come prepared. An interview isn't a memory test.

I wish him the very best of luck!

Very good advice on the practising and the hard copy presentations. It might also be worth asking if they will allow presentations taken in on a memory stick and/or emailed in advance as well - every department is different, some may allow it, others not. Procurement is way different from, say, the science departments.

Also if he can bear videoing himself on his phone, say, that will help him with his presentation technique too.

Well done on getting an interview and the very best of luck - I spent 4 years with a couple of different departments, met some incredible people and learned so much about all kinds of things.

It is important that he has just a couple of dot points on each slide but does not just read them out but speaks about them.

Again he can't cover the service in 10 minutes so he might be best picking one aspect.

Tell him to remember to breath and pause - the worst thing people do is rush through it with nerves and then their 10 minute presentation becomes a 5 minute one.

Again don't just read from the presentation - put bullet points on and then expand - making sure he turns to talk to his audience.

Yes he needs the presentation printed out for everyone.

Say thank-you for your time and ask if there are any questions at the end. That stops the awkward pause at the end.

On the first page he could introduce himself - not great depth but a little bit about himself. Then next explain what he is going to talk about today and then into the presentation. Sets it up nicely rather than launching straight into it.

I’d advise be practice to be sure it is under 10 mins. It’s easy to look at a few slides and think it’ll be quick but when you’re in the moment it’s not. If they are on a schedule they may need to cut him short if he goes over the 10 mins so definitely keep to time.

Thank you. For the advice everyone.
DS has just messaged me to say he is coming over tomorrow night to make a start on it!
It feels lump doing homework all over again!😂

Agree with @startuprepair, only have a few bullet points on each slide, not vast amounts of text - and don't just read out the text that is there but use it as a reminder/prompt of a wider commentary on the subject of each page.

lump was meant to be like

Whatever he decides to focus on make it easy to remember as I hate watching presentations where the person just reads off paper or the slide.

Make it a conversation with the panel.